Chapter 28.1- Doom Days

One person had waited for her to strike first, and the other had struck before she could. I could pick either option so I did what came naturally to me and I took a stance, a deep breath and waited. The timer counted up, taking account of the time we spent staring at each other.

“You’re Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, right? They say you’re a big deal” She said.

“Ye—“ I’d just begun to reply when she struck. I smirked as I batted the piercing curses to the side. The bludgeoner she sent paused against my wand for a second for I pushed it back in her direction at double its power. She spun to the side, letting the spell bang against the wards with a silent explosion.

Where a lesser combatant would have taken a pause, she continued. Her wand was a blur of motion as piercer after piercer left her wand. Each one I slammed to the sides as I swung my wand around my odd so quickly that I felt I must have looked a blur to those watching. Not to me though. Movements that should have been mere shadows were easy for me to track with my eyes now. I could see every spell as she formed it and it felt like small eternities passed between a spell being called into being and it reaching me. I stabbed my wand forward, conjuring a block of granite that took the brunt of the next rush of spells.

I flicked my wand, banishing the granite at her and she ran forwards before jumping over it, displaying athleticism that would have put most wizards to shame. At the apex of her jump, she sent two wicked lances of dark grey magic at me. I conjured another block of granite with one flick before transfiguring it into a wall with another. The spells hit and seemed to do nothing for a second before the stones began to explode. I banished the entire wall in his direction, forcing her to blow the whole thing up with a silent confringo. I twirled my wand and summoned a massive anaconda into being. A second twist transfigured its skin into stone. Her cutting curse scarred a long line along its body but failed to penetrate as I egged it on in parseltongue. I had none of Potter’s shyness about using the gifts I had to my own advantage.

She turned her wand against the snake but before she could use anything powerful, I lashed out with the first spell chain Flitwick had taught me, the Dueler’s hello. Disarmer, knock back jinx, stunner and full-body bind. She levied a contemptuous sneer in my direction as she deflected the nuisance spells with ease. I spun my wand, executing another spell— Gemino, creating an identical snake next to the one creeping towards her.